Reichert: ‘Some medicinal uses for marijuana’

He doesn’t want it legalized, but U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., has come to recognize “there may be some medicinal uses for marijuana,” Reichert said Friday on KCTS Connects.

Reichert, a former King County Sheriff, had his thinking changed by pain in his own family.

“Well, you know, as an old cop, you’re never going to hear me say, ‘Legalize marijuana!'” Reichert told host Enrique Cerna. “But I’ll tell you this, I do recognize the medical benefit and it’s only come to me recently that I recognize that.”

“My mother is going through pancreatic cancer . . . and, you know, the survival rate there is 2 percent. But one of the medications that she takes is cannabis combined with some other medicine, but it’s in a pill form that has some effect on her digestive system that gives her some relief.

“It provided her relief and so we’ve come to recognize that there may be some medicinal uses for marijuana.

Talk about legalization, however, and Reichert starts to sound like Obama administration drug czar Gil Kerlikowske.

“I have just seen too many start out and they — you know, there’s an argument, ‘No, it’s not an entry drug’ — I unfortunately have seen too much of that in my past career where it indeed has led to young people entering into another drug world.”